Rethinking Maps New Frontiers in Cartographic Theory

About this book

Mapping is in a state of transformation given the development of new spatial technologies and techniques that fundamentally alter the creation, distribution and use of maps. Rethinking Maps brings together leading researchers to explore how maps are being rethought, made and used, and what these transformations mean for working cartographers, everyday map creators and users, and cartographic scholarship. It offers a contemporary assessment of the diverse forms that mapping now takes and, drawing upon a number of theoretic perspectives and disciplines, provides insightful commentary on new ontological and epistemological thinking with respect to cartographic praxis.

Rethinking Maps presents a diverse set of approaches to a wide range of new and old map forms and activities, including critical analysis of distributed mapping, new mapping technologies, open-source cartographies, sustainable mapping, new mapping practices, and issues such as representation, race, power, and play. Through theoretically directed case studies the chapters provide an excellent resource for those creating and working with maps and a broad spectrum of advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in human geography, cartography, GIScience, visual anthropology, media studies, graphic design and computer graphics.

The book has a multi-disciplinary approach to important contemporary mapping practices, with chapters written by leading theorists who have an international reputation for innovative thinking. It also considers how alternative models of map creation and use such as open-source mappings and map mash-up are being creatively explored by programmers, artists and activists. There is also an examination of the work of various 'everyday mappers' in diverse social and cultural contexts.

Contents

1. Thinking about Maps 2. Rethinking Maps and Identity: Choropleths, Clines and Biopolitics 3. Rethinking Maps from a More-than-human Perspective: Nature-society, Mapping, and Conservation Territories 4. Web Mapping 2.0 5. Modelling the Earth: A Short History 6. Theirwork: The Development of Sustainable Mapping 7. Cartographic Representation and the Construction of Lived Worlds: Understanding Cartographic Practice as Embodied Knowledge 8. The 39 Steps and the Mental Map of Classical Cinema 9. The Emotional Life of Maps and Other Visual Geographies 10. Playing with Maps 11. Ce N'est Pas le Monde [This is Not the World] 12. Mapping Modes, Methods and Moments: A Manifesto for Map Studies

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Biography

Martin Dodge works at the University of Manchester as a Lecturer in Human Geography researching the geography of cyberspace. He is the curator of a web-based Atlas of Cyberspace (www.cybergeography.org/atlas) and has co-authored three books, Mapping Cyberspace, Atlas of Cyberspace and Geographic Visualization. Rob Kitchin is Director of the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis and Professor of Human Geography at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. He has published twelve books and is the Managing Editor of Social and Cultural Geography and co-editor-in-chief of the International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography. Chris Perkins is Senior Lecturer in Geography and Map Curator in the University of Manchester. His research interests focus on the social contexts of mapping and he is the author and editor of 6 books, including World Mapping Today and the Companion Encyclopaedia of Geography.